This presentation by Australia was made during the discussion “Independent sector regulators and competition” held at the 68th meeting of the OECD Working Party No. 2 on Competition and Regulation on 2 December 2019. More papers and presentations on the topic can be found at oe.cd/isrc.

1. accc.gov.au
Independent Sector
Regulation in Australia
Marcus Bezzi, Executive General Manager
OECD Working Party No. 2 on Competition and Regulation
2 December 2019

2. accc.gov.au
Outline
• Specialisation
• Competition and Economic Regulators in
Australia
• Independence
• ACCC regulatory functions
• Access regulation in Australia
• Proposed regulatory functions in the digital
economy

3. accc.gov.au
Specialisation
• Competition law and economic regulation should
operate in a complementary manner – both seek
to deliver better outcomes for consumers.
• Significant advantages for a competition agency
to have specialist internal expertise in more
complex industry sectors - eg, Energy,
Transportation, Agriculture and water,
Telecommunications, Financial Services.
• Also significant advantages of working closely
with specialist regulators, leverage respective
agency’s industry knowledge

4. accc.gov.au
Competition and economic regulators in Australia
Body ACCC relationship
Australian Energy Regulator Cross appointments; Co-located, shared
staffing resources, knowledge sharing, shared
legal and economic expertise
National Competition Council Co-located, shared staffing resources
Australian Communications and Media
Authority
Cross appointments; high level regular
meetings; Issue-related operational
engagement
AUSTRAC Issue-related operational engagement; regular
staff meetings.
Murray-Darling Basin Authority Issue related operational engagement, staff
secondments
Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority High level regular meetings; Issue-related
operational engagement, staff secondments
Reserve Bank of Australia Annual meetings, MOU, Issue-related
operational engagement, staff secondments
Australian Securities and Investments
Commission
High level regular meetings; MOU; Frequent
operational engagement at all levels, staff
secondments

5. accc.gov.au
Independence
Advantages of
a broad
economy wide
mandate and a
diffuse set of
stakeholders
Risks
presented by
having a small
group of
powerful
stakeholders

6. accc.gov.au
ACCC regulatory functions
• determining prices and access terms/conditions for
some nationally significant infrastructure
• monitoring and enforcing industry-specific laws
• monitoring and reporting on prices and quality of
particular goods and services
• disseminating information to help stakeholders
understand regulatory frameworks and the structure
and operation of infrastructure markets
• providing advice regulatory advice to government
• New role – Consumer Data Right

7. accc.gov.au
ACCC regulatory functions
Communications
Fuel
Airports
Energy
Postal services
Water
Rail
Waterfront
Wheat export

8. accc.gov.au
Access regulation in Australia
• ACCC regulates access to ‘declared services’
• Allows third parties to share the use of certain infrastructure
services on reasonable terms and conditions
• National Competition Council makes recommendations to
government on whether a service should be declared
• Australian Competition Tribunal can review declarations on request
from affected parties
• Declaration does not mean automatic access – still needs
agreement with the provider or ACCC arbitration
• Only the natural monopolies that meet ‘declaration criteria’ can be
declared

9. accc.gov.au
Access Regulation in Australia
• Declaration criteria for ‘facilities’:
– Access must promote a material increase
in competition in another market
– Facility will be able to meet the foreseeable
demand, at a lower cost than multiple
facilities could
– The facility is of national significance
– Access would promote the public interest

10. accc.gov.au
Regulatory functions in the digital economy
• Consumer Data Right
• Existing regulatory functions in communications:
– investigating claims of anti-competitive conduct in the
communications sector
– regulating access to the National Broadband Network
and other declared communications services
– monitoring and reporting on prices and competition in
the communications sector
• Interact with other communications regulators and
industry organisations
• Have also recommended additional regulatory measures
in our Digital Platforms Inquiry

11. accc.gov.au
Proposed Regulation in the Digital Economy –
ACCC recommendations
Large platforms implement an industry code of conduct
to govern the handling of complaints about disinformation
on their services
Creation of a specialised digital platforms branch within
the ACCC with the power to monitor, investigate and
report on digital platform markets
Large platforms to each implement a code of conduct to
govern their relationships with news media businesses.
This includes governing the take-down processes of
digital platforms operating in Australia

12. accc.gov.au
Digital Platforms Inquiry recommendations
Overhaul of Australia’s privacy laws to introduce
penalties for data breaches, strengthen rights related to
consent, portability and erasure of data
Australia’s information and privacy regulator to develop
an enforceable code of practice in relation to information
requirements, consent, opt out options, retention periods
etc.
Regulatory oversight of internal dispute resolution
processes at large digital platforms, and creation of
government ombudsman to resolve complaints